Dear artists, dear guests, thank you for joining
us here today for such an important event. We are pleased to welcome you at the
National Archive and Research Center. In the buildings of the National Archive
we safekeep the historical and cultural heritage of Cyprus and we have taken over
the mission to be the national memory. And today, we are so happy to house this exhibition that also represents the
historical and cultural heritage of art
and culture. Have an enjoyable evening...

SPEECH (Heidi Trautmann)

Dear friends, dear
guests….. Sevgili Dostlarım, Sevgili Konuklar…

Dear Gökhan, thank
you for your words of welcome and thank you for letting us use this wonderful
venue, the new Sergi ve Konferans Salonu of the National Archive and Research
Centre to not only launch my book but to have this exhibition of the artists’
works. You and your team have made us so welcome and during the last weeks you have
been doing extra time to finish it for the very first event. Congratulations
and a fabulous future for you all, here at the Gate to the Past with all its historical
documents. With the Gate to the Past in
my back I have the presence and future in front of me and at my side with you
the guests, and the artists and participants from between the pages of my book.

I bought this
dress 11 years ago in Aleppo, on the big bazaar opposite the castle, and I have
worn this dress on the occasion of the launch of the first volume of ‘Art and
Creativity in North Cyprus’ in 2010.

Syria, which we
have visited several times with our sailing boat and which we loved and
appreciated as a country of high cultural values, is no longer recognizable and
its people have fled to our shores and borders begging for shelter, including its
artists. Those have spoken but nobody listened, the voice of war is reigning
and silencing all other peace demanding voices. Let us think of Syria for a
moment and pray that peace, art and culture may return to our neighbour’s
country.

The two volumes – it
has taken altogether ten years to finish them – contain an important part of the
riches of the northern part of Cyprus, which are the artists of the various
disciplines, the worlds of literature and theatre and the visual arts in the
broader sense. They are people from amidst our society who have decided to exercise
their profession in one form or another, creating, teaching people how to use
their senses and admonishing us by putting the fingers in the wounds of
politics and society. I well remember the times when artists from the south and
the north of Cyprus contributed their vision of the past and the future in form
of visual art or poetry in the rooms of the peace talks.

And does our
theatre not hold a mirror in front of our eyes with their plays, bring the
problems onto stage in the north and the south as recently done again? In times of trouble the language of art is
often the only language people can use to speak up and bring their critics and
vision forward. So many politicians would be well advised to keep some artists
at their side, I am asking you, who would be better suited to see things in the
proper proportions.

I knocked on many
artists’ doors during the last ten years and they not only invited me into
their house but into their life and heart as well. I learnt so much and I
learnt that their road through life and towards what they felt, they wanted and
had to do was full of thorns and obstacles. I want to thank them for their
friendship. On the sleeves of the book’s
jacket my friend Aydin Mehmet Ali wrote that I approached my project with a
certain naivety – and I have to admit it – Yes, I did, I had to enter such a
task as a blank page and I left it with a heart full of warmth.

I also want to
thank those who accompanied me over the years and helped me in one or the other
way, that is in the forefront Léonie Brittain, Nazif Bozatli, Tuneysel Yaylali and
so many others. Here I would like to especially mention Kayhan Yorgancı and his
team from Okman Printıng who selflessly
gave months of their time to support me. And my specıal thanks go to the
Ministry of Tourism for the coverage of the printing costs. (Şahap Aşikoğlu, also Latif Ince and Pembe Kanatlı)
It was a long journey). With respect to
the printing as such here also a first: It is the first hardcover book in this
form that has been published in Northern Cyprus.

My thanks also to
my friends who have been helping me with the setting up of the exhibition and
the organisation of this evening.

I have hung up
posters here with the table of contents for you to see who is in the book. Before I end my little speech I want to
express my sadness that in the course of writing the two books some of our
artists have left us for another level of existence; that are Ali Atakan, Rüya
Reşat, Fikret Demirağ, Ali Nesim and now, five months ago Servet Sami Dedeçay
who had founded the first ever University of Northern Cyprus. I am grateful to
have met them. They will not be forgotten.

I now want to hand
over to my friend and the Grey Eminence of Theatre and Culture, Mr Yaşar Ersoy
who has agreed to say some words regarding the importance of all disciplines of
arts and its interrelations. I share his philosophy that the last thing to die
is hope and join in his wish for peace, understanding and collaboration. How
rich we could all be if we would share what we know just as I share tonight the
experiences I have made in this country.

I will later do
some explaining to the various disciplines exhibited, if necessary. You will
meet many artists tonight, although our friends from the Nicosia Municipality
Theatre will have to leave us earlier because there is the last play of the
Cyprus Theatre Festival for the 13th time, something of immeasurable
value for Cyprus.

The texts of
speeches in English and Turkish may be found on my website.

Heidi
Trautmann was adding that she had dedicated the book to the women of Cyprus,
especially the mothers of creative men and women-

Esteemed Heidi Trautmann is a humanist who
troubles herself with and writes about Cypriots’ issues more than Cypriots
themselves and loves this island and native people dearly,

She is an enlightened person who after
travelling around the world, including the Mediterranean, anchored in Cyprus
and has been living here since with a great love and a sense of responsibility,

She is a selfless lover of Cyprus
who works hard to make life more beautiful through her painter, writer, artist
and journalist identity,

She is a humble role model who approaches
people with love and respect,

She is a lover of Cyprus who is
known for her part in the Turkish Cypriot Culture art world and all that she
value she enriches Turkish Cypriots' cultural art,

One of her best examples is her Volume
2: "Art and Creativity in North Cyprus". While her first volume addresses
the plastic arts, her second volume includes other fields of art such as
literature, theatre and caricature. Thanks to several interviews that she
tirelessly, persistently and devotedly held with artists, which reflects the
very essence of her humble personality, Heidi Trautmann is leaving behind an
incredible legacy, and we cannot thank her enough.

Thank you very much Heidi Trautmann…
Due to her works in Cyprus, she received an order of merit from her home
country, Germany. But what did Cypriots give back to Heidi Trautmann except for
a thank you for her works with regard to Cyprus?

Heidi
Trautmann asked me to give a speech about Theatre... And I gladly accepted with
open arms...

Totalitarian art, theatre...

Theatre has always been one of the
most basic indicators of human beings' phases towards civilization throughout
history. For that reason, theatre can be characterized as the most distinct
reflection of all the adventures human beings have embarked on throughout
history, on the artistic level.

In this respect, theatre is not only
a field of art, but also a scientific field of sociology, psychology, ideology
and history...

Cultural history expert Wilhelm
Meister defines theatre as "human science". As a matter of fact,
since ancient times theatre has been regarded as "school of
society"... and it's said that in "school of society" teaches us
about "people". Because theatre is the source of culture. As long as
it is made good use of, and as long as it raises awareness and people can
benefit from it.

As a personal and social education
institution, besides its artistic merit, one of the most important achievements
of theatre that has served humanity throughout history is its capability to “merge
entertainment with what’s beneficial”. Theatre is the most meaningful and
significant doctrine of human beings’ essence that can be experienced
throughout pace of life. It is the most important doctrine, as it steers people
into doing what’s right and good. It is the most meaningful doctrine, because
as Bertolt Brecht says, “it is in the service of the greatest of all arts: the
art of living”. It is a totalitarian art where the main material is human, its purpose
is to provide direct communication between human beings, minds and hearts.

Totalitarian art is the melting pot
of all art forms. One can call a meeting place for visual, auditory, literary
arts a ‘theatre stage’. People from various disciplines and languages can get
together and mould into a brand new language and discipline to form the theatrical
language. Thus, theatre speaks, appears and touches to all of our senses and
perception through its peculiar and specific and utterly independent language…
and what makes theatre different than other art forms is the existence of that “moment”
and its ability to unite living organisms at one place.

Whilst theatre is a social art, since
ancient times it has been known for its healing and purifying qualities. The
first person to comment on this aspect of theatre was famous theorist Aristotle.
According to him, “compassion and fear” portrayed in art of drama leads people
to an intellectual purification. Aristotle explains this process as “catharsis”
which a medical term for a form of treatment. As is known to all, drama has
since been actively used in psychology and education throughout history.

Without a doubt, theatre plays a big
role in enhancing human personality and healing people’s souls.

Theatre is also a school of
democracy, a democracy regime, even. Theatre is a democratic institution where
many people can get together to produce something, with a theatre hall full of
people watching this and have a critical approach to one another, and even if
they don’t necessarily agree with each others’ feelings or thoughts, they empathise
and respect their differences.

In ancient times, theatre’s function
was to set an objective which would be beneficial to the society. For that
reason, theatre criticises leaders, people and gods… It throws light on the
difference between right and wrong, good and bad, beautiful and ugly for people
and leaders… and as it’s very well known, theatres are indispensable to city
states. For that reason, Plato suggested that Ancient Greece was not governed
by democracy, but “theatrocracy”. In that era, theatre was a combination of
eyes that could see, ears that could hear, mouth that could speak, an attorney
that could interrogate, and a judge that could give a verdict.

Throughout history, theatre
continued to function the same way as it did before in different forms and
formats.

For that reason, theatre is not only
a “performance show”, but also something that perpetually questions life, never
ceases to come to terms with tomorrow; it is to embrace people and a world that
is in need of an immense cultural accumulation and reinterpreting life and
earth, and recreating it altogether.